Cloud Hosting

Cloud computing seems to be everywhere now, and it is getting more and more popular. This, in many ways definitely a new type of service has a lot of potential and usability in online services, because online businesses or any kind of organisation that uses certain types of web services can greatly benefit from it.

Simply because they can easily reply to new demand in resources and technology, meanwhile remaining cheap as clients don’t have to make serious investments in hardware, software and additional human resources.

Moving into a new technology

There are some things to consider before utilizing a new technology, and so cloud technology. Currently this technology is mostly used by developers who have the proper skills and knowlegde to know the advantages it offers, plus there are the new comers who utilize the latest technologies.

Existing enterprises use it too, but these companies already have established systems, so in their case it’s not that widespread. We can find several examples form different industries: web service companies, pharmaceutical organisations and even ERP systems.

If we decide to implement a new technology we have to see clearly the positives and negatives of that new framework. Let’s see what are some points to consider when starting to use cloud technology.

Make a clear plan: this should be precise and feasible.

Take your time, there is no rush here, if you make the wrong decision too soon you’ll definitely regret it later.

Gather information: get your info from internal sources, talk with developers. Inquire about legal conditions with legal advisors, make the necessary safety measures (e.g. insurance in case of a data loss).

You need to make sure to have the necessary human resources to make the shift, if you don’t have it in your company yet, you will have to acquire it. Make sure you know what in segment you want to use the cloud – is this the one that really needs this? Is this going to give the right boost? Is it worth it?

You don’t have to make a full shift at first, move parts that are not mainstream in your service, so you can test the new system and see how it works. If you find something that is not working as you expected, you can finetune the system to your needs without suffering losses in any way.

Different organisations will make the shift differently, so we can say that it is greatly influenced by the magnitude of the data, applications to be shifted, so all in all the size of the organsiation is akey feature. This greatly determines how complex will the shift be, and also the pre work and planning that is put into the project. Of course a lot depends from the cloud provider too.

Select the right provider: definitely one of the most important things to consider. Success or failure greatly depends on this. The right partner is needed to conduct a successful system. Find a company that is on the market for quite a while, is successful, has good support, the pricing system is clear with no hidden fees, is reliable, has the right technology, has good packages (e.g. short-terms contracts are available), has a good refund policy and last but not least has decent policy regarding clients.

After making sure that you’ve found the right provider and the stuff you want to reallocate it’s time to actually implement the new system. You want to start with simple applications first, like managing e-mails.

If you’ve chosen the right provider, there is no significant risk because if you’re sart, you do not want to sign up for a long-term contract at first. After you get the results of the ‘testing’, you might want to step back a little bit and make some kind of an evaluation.

Making a shift towards cloud technology now is not the end. You have to reevaluate your needs and conditions from time to time, because as I mentioned in the beginning, this technology (like any) changes quite fast, and so there might appear other solutions for you to use in your organisation.

It is always a major goal for companies to get value for their money and the Cloud can provide just that. It is a good way for companies to lower their expenditures yet enhancing the quality of their services.